Then the wait staff put a burger in front of me that was nestled between two bacon-tomato grilled-cheese sandwiches. The French toast they brought to my table was made with challah bread and stuffed with bananas, cream cheese, hazelnut syrup and brown sugar that gushed into a plate of blueberry strawberry compote once you took a fork to it. The fried chicken that came next had been brined for 24 hours, marinated for 24 hours and then deep fried and served with a full Belgian waffle, strawberry butter and a sweet syrup garnished with Louisiana Hot Sauce.

It all had a greasy spoon vibe to it with an extra dose of flavor and sophistication.

That combination had the Food Network’s Guy Fieri and Diners Drive-Ins and Dives at the chain’s Jacksonville doorstep in 2010.

And it brought in a strong lunch crowd on Wednesday when the new Sarasota restaurant switched on its open sign for the first time.

There’s more to those filled tables and that buzz than food.

I sat on Wednesday across from Christa Kremer, the marketing director for Westfield Siesta Key, during a 90-minute tasting that started with two fried grit cakes infused with cheese, roasted red peppers and Andouille sausage that were smothered with shrimp, onions, peppers and bacon. That was followed by the chicken and French toast, then by meatloaf and by salted caramel cheesecake.

Kremer was giddy over that cheesecake but even more so about what all this meant for the mall.

It’s been a long, difficult journey for the indoor shopping center formerly known as Westfield Southgate. The mall lost two anchors, a number of in-line tenants and substantial foot traffic when the Mall at University Town Center opened in 2014, and the kitchen firing up at Metro Diner marks another milestone on the center’s revitalization.

All that construction we’ve been watching from U.S. 41 since last summer is finally becoming a restaurant hub. The rollouts are slated to continue next month with Connors Steak and Seafood and a new coastal concept from Bravo Brio Restaurant Group. Lucky’s Market, Naples Flatbread and Wine Bar and L’Core spa are also expected to open this year.

It’s an exciting time for a shopping center that’s spent more than two years on retail life support.

I’ve had a lot of readers ask me if I think the eight new stores the mall is bringing on this year will be enough to restore the old Southgate to its former glory.

It’s still too early to really tell.

But there was a level of activity in that diner that I haven’t seen at that mall in the two years I’ve been writing this column.

I’m sure the heaping platefuls of food that average about $12 a meal had something to do with it.

I’m sure the mall itself did, too.

Consumers lost their reasons to go to the old Southgate when Saks Fifth Avenue, Dillard’s and a slew of other tenants packed their bags nearly three years ago, but they didn’t lose their curiosity about the site.

Kremer told me that this community has shown an interest in this mall in a way that she hasn’t seen at any other property or city that she’s worked in.

I’ve felt it, too.

Now will curiosity and challah bread stuffed with bananas, cream cheese and hazelnut syrup be enough to drive true foot traffic into that mall?

Absolutely not.

But it certainly caused a stir today.

We’ve got five more stirs like this scheduled this year. That just might be enough.

The Australia-based Westfield late last month rebranded its property at U.S. 41 and Siesta Drive as Westfield Siesta Key. New signs are up at the shopping center and the company is sporting the new name on its website and social media pages.

The long-anticipated name change comes on the cusp of the indoor mall’s transition into a lifestyle and entertainment center. Naples Flatbread and Wine Bar, Metro Diner, Connors Steak and Seafood and a new concept from Bravo-Brio Restaurant Group are all slated to open at the mall in the coming months. Metro Diner already has its facade up and has set up a hiring center inside the mall.

The upscale shopping mall also welcomed LA Fitness to the old Dillard’s anchor in April and a Lucky’s Market is also under construction in that space. CineBistro, a luxury movie and dining concept, has been operating in the former Saks Fifth Avenue space since early 2016.

LA Fitness at Westfield Southgate will celebrate its grand opening on June 3.

The event, which runs from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., is open to the public.

Guests are invited to bring workout clothes and participate in a complimentary workout.

The fitness center will hold a boot camp clinic with its personal-training staff at 11 a.m., a Zumba class at noon and a basketball free throw event at 2 p.m. Face painting and balloon twisting will be available for children from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

LA Fitness had soft open at the end of April in the mall’s former Dillard’s anchor space.

This is one of eight opening events planned at the high-end shopping center at the intersection of U.S. 41 and Siesta Drive. Cravings coffee shop opened at the beginning of May. Lucky’s Market, Connor’s Steak and Seafood, L’Core Spa, Metro Diner, Naples Flatbread and Wine Bar and a new concept from Bravo Brio Restaurant Group are also slated to join the mall.

That’s going to be the new reality for shoppers and mall walkers at Westfield Southgate. Paul Sykes, the entrepreneur behind the mall’s home delivery art consulting business, Art Avenue, is bringing his coffee shop and Thai cuisine concept to the indoor shopping center.

Sykes purchased Ohio-based coffee and pastry shop Cravings Café in 2010 but, as he does with most things, he put his own twist on it in 2013 when he added Thai food to the menu. This is the same businessman who took the old clothing racks in the mall’s empty Gap space and repurposed them in a way that makes Art Avenue’s paintings look as though they’re floating in the gallery. That kind of creativity has already worked its way into Cravings’ Sarasota satellite.

Cravings launched softly in the old Starbucks earlier this week with its coffee offerings, and Sykes is partnering with local chefs to add a Thai menu sometime in the next 40 days. He’ll serve coffee, mochas, blended drinks and teas in the first half of the day and then open a Thai counter in the evening where guests will pay for dishes by the pound.

But the space has more than a new menu. He’s revamped the interior and the color scheme. Now the chairs are purple, the tabletops are paint splattered and the walls are covered with vibrant pieces from his Art Avenue collection. The storefront, in the center of the mall near Gymboree, doesn’t even look like a Starbucks anymore.

It’s been well over a year since the national coffee retail giant pulled out of Westfield Southgate. That exit left Pretzel Time as the only food service option in the core of the mall and created a caffeine void in the shopping center that’s struggled to maintain tenants and foot traffic since the Mall at University Town Center launched in 2014.

Eventually, Pretzel Time closed, too, leaving TooJay’s and the new CineBistro as the only food options in a shopping center already laden with dark storefronts.

Southgate has endured roughly three years of grim exits and tenant turnover, but the mall’s resurgence is finally hitting full speed. The traditional indoor shopping hub’s long-planned transformation into a lifestyle and entertainment center should take full form by New Year’s Day, executives there say.

Cravings is the second of eight openings Westfield has planned for this year. LA Fitness opened in the old Dillard’s anchor space just days ago and Lucky’s Market is expected to open there this summer. Construction crews are busy building out spaces for four new restaurants — Naples Flatbread and Wine Bar, Metro Diner, Connors Steak and Seafood, and a new concept from Bravo-Brio Restaurant Group. L’Core Spa, a gemstone-based skincare company, is slated to open its doors near the Macy’s anchor sometime this fall.

Sykes was among a collection of independent retailers who invested in the mall in 2015 after the Mall at University Town Center siphoned off a horde of major national tenants such as Gap, Banana Republic, Williams-Sonoma and Potterybarn. Even though Westfield held on to players Ann Taylor, Loft, Francesca’s and Victoria’s Secret in the downturn, Sykes told me it’s been a little rough at the mall since he opened Art Avenue. The restaurant construction that began in September hasn’t helped matters.

But he likes the area’s demographic and he believes in the market and the property.

The businessman is no stranger to reinvention. He’s a former professional violinist who once owned a chain of gift stores that spanned 17 malls and eight different cities.

Sykes is all about revitalization in his own life.

No wonder he’s latched onto one of the most anticipated redevelopments in Southwest Florida.

With at least eight new retailers in the works, there’s been no shortage of movement at Westfield Southgate this year.

And that’s even before the treadmills, cycles and aerobics classes at the new LA Fitness really get rolling.

The rows of fitness equipment have moved in and the construction crews have cleared the dust at the south end of the old Dillard’s property.

But it’s really not fair to call it that anymore.

The department store chain’s storefront and signature dome have been replaced with a sleek facade. There’s a three-lane swimming pool in a space that likely once held racks of clothing, and the interior has an earthy, fresh vibe to it that almost makes it feel like a spa. It’s a new prototype for LA Fitness and a new look for the mall as a whole.

If you’d never known it was once a Dillard’s, you’d never be able to tell.

All that’s really left in this part of the evolution is for the doors to open.

While LA Fitness couldn’t give me a solid answer on when the soft opening will begin, the staff expects it will be soon.

This launch is the next step in a much bigger project. The traditional indoor shopping mall at U.S. 41 and Siesta Drive is midway through its transformation into a modern lifestyle and entertainment center. That began in 2013 with new fixtures and picked up speed in 2015 when Westfield demolished the vacant Saks Fifth Avenue and built a Cobb CineBistro on that site. It’s been a 14-month gap between that opening and the new LA Fitness, but Westfield has been busy. The mall also has five restaurant spaces, a day spa and a new coffee shop under construction. Meanwhile, Benderson Development Co., which owns the old Dillard’s anchor, has a Lucky’s Market in the works adjacent to the LA Fitness.

It’s a big moment for a property that’s struggled since the Mall at University Town Center opened in 2014. That $315 million mall siphoned off tenants from Southgate, diluted the retail market and left the high-end shopping center in need of a whole new identity.

And it only takes a quick drive around the property to see that the mall is getting much more than a makeover.

I stopped in on Thursday morning and met with Natalie Adams, LA Fitness’ district operations manager for Southwest Florida, and Christa Kremer, the marketing director for Southgate and its sister property Westfield Sarasota Square.

In this increasingly difficult retail climate filled with bankruptcies and closeout sales, it’s unusual to see brick-and-mortar players excited, but Kremer and Adams were beaming.

Adams told me she’s already seen a strong response from the community. Florida is an active place, and even though she has an LA Fitness just five miles east on Cattlemen Road, she says there’s a strong demand for another one.

The new center will have child care, volleyball and basketball leagues, and may eventually offer as many as 30 classes. LA Fitness’ new prototype features a special space for its personal training clients and extra space for its members to gather. It’s the kind of place where their clients can linger, visit and be recognized. Just like the old TV show “Cheers,” she says, but it’s a gym, not a bar. Once Lucky’s Market opens this summer, the gym’s members will have relatively immediate access to whatever supplements or foods the nutritionist recommends.

It’s that kind of continuity that’s exciting for Kremer.

The mall’s newest tenants fit together, she told me. Lucky’s Market, LA Fitness and the upcoming L’Core day spa have a wellness element to them, and there’s a social aspect that comes with the restaurants and coffee shop.

The new identity that mall owners have been working on isn’t just about shopping. It’s about living.

National retail reports overwhelmingly show that people are increasingly spending more money on experiences than they did before the Great Recession.

Shops like Ron Saba’s have become almost as much of a rarity as the pieces he sells.

As interest in fine crafts and collections has waned, so has the foot traffic the shop owner sees in his Ashley Avery’s store at Westfield Southgate. While the baby boomer generation still has an appreciation for high-end crystal and porcelain, the younger shoppers are more focused on gadgets, he says, and after 18 years in business, it’s time to say goodbye.

Saba, 74, was just beginning his “soft closing” when I stopped in to chat with him Monday morning. He’s leaving the doors open as he’s packing his boxes and he’ll still sell whatever hasn’t been put away. He’ll be there until the merchandise is gone or until he’s done moving. Whichever comes first.

The Ashley Avery’s chain was founded in 1983 and it had 41 other stores when Saba opened his franchise in 1999. The parent company went under a decade ago, but Saba held on to his store even as shoppers clung to their purse strings during the Great Recession.

Once the economy bounced back, Sarasota’s retail climate presented him with a new challenge. The Mall at University Town Center saturated the market and siphoned off foot traffic — and his national tenant neighbors — from what was once the epicenter of high-end retail in the area. In recent months, the construction outside Westfield Southgate has thwarted even more customers, he says.

Even once that construction turns into active new retail space, he’s not convinced it’ll bring back the kind of customer he needs to keep going.

Looking back on the early days of his business, it’s hard for him to believe that retail has come to this. Over the years, names like Lladro, Giuseppe Armani and Swarovski have filled his shelves.

In the early days, Ashley Avery’s hosted events, supported the local arts and brought world-renowned artists into the area. He hosted Tatiana Fabergé, whose family is known for the Fabergé eggs, at the Van Wezel in 2004. The exquisite eggs are made from Limoges porcelain, hand-carved gemstones, copper, gold-encrusted crystal and enamel. Their interiors feature miniature sculptures such as animals, cathedrals or carousels.

Saba worked with the Czech Republic embassy in New York to identify the finest crystal for his store’s collection. Moser, he says, is the Rolls-Royce of crystal, and he traveled to the company’s storefront and museum that dates to the 1800s.

When he was in Barcelona near the turn of the millennium, he found a bronze gladiator statue in a small antique store but that shop was so small it didn’t have materials to pack it. So Saba purchased some bubble wrap from a local hardware store, wrapped the statue like a mummy and carried it on the plane himself. That was before 9/11. He may have raised a few eyebrows bringing the gladiator onboard, but none of the concerns were for security reasons.

His pieces are full of stories, he says. But after nearly two decades of adventures, it’s time to bring the Ashley Avery’s story to an end.

When Saba opened the store in 1999 after a 30-year career in sales for Hearst Magazines, he was ready to run a quiet little store and enjoy a nice cabana on the beach.

As the retail climate has shifted, so has that dream.

Lately, he’s run the shop single-handedly, which is a big shift from the 10 employees he had in the store’s heyday. He hasn’t seen the beach in five years, he says.

Maybe once he finishes packing boxes and says goodbye, he’ll finally get back there.

Commercial building permits filed with Sarasota County last week indicate the breakfast, lunch and dinner chain will open a restaurant at 2111 Tamiami Trail S. in Venice. The company is planning $750,000 worth of construction at the site, according to the documents.

Metro Diner originated in Jacksonville and has since expanded to more than 25 locations in seven states, with at least another 11 restaurants in the works. The company has Florida roots dating back to 1938 and today is known for its contemporary menu with imaginative twists on old classics.

The breakfast menu features dishes such as grit cakes with cheese, roasted red peppers, shrimp and andouille sausage as well as french toast made with challah bread and stuffed with bananas, brown sugar, cream cheese and hazelnut syrup. The dinner menu has a collection of salads, sandwiches, soups and entrees such as chicken and waffles, meatloaf and chicken pot pie.

The company’s first Southwest Florida location is slated to open later this year in one of four outparcel restaurants under construction at Westfield Southgate in Sarasota. Connors Steak and Seafood, a new concept from Bravo Brio Restaurant Group and a fourth unnamed restaurant are also in the works.

But that’s not the only reason it’s taking the “new year, new me” concept to extremes.

First-quarter numbers are rolling in, and they’re largely underwhelming. Players like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target, Barnes & Noble, Men’s Wearhouse and Staples all reported sobering results, and Radio Shack is doing its second dance with bankruptcy in two years.

Consumers don’t shop the way they did 20 years ago, and the growth spurt that retail saw in the ’90s and early 2000s has left the industry with a surplus of dead weight.

Richard Hayne, the CEO of clothing retailer Urban Outfitters, reportedly compared this nightmare to the housing bubble of the 2000s during a conference call last week.

Well, the bubble has burst. It’s time to slim down, and I’m not talking about pounds. This retail evolution is all about shedding stores.

Staples last week pledged to drop 70 from the 1,255 stores it had when it kicked off its fiscal year.

Radio Shack wants to cut about 9 percent of its 1,943. Evidently, the roughly 2,400 stores the chain closed during the first bankruptcy just didn’t do the trick.

Abercrombie & Fitch is still working its way toward a healthy, manageable size. The chain has closed hundreds of stores over the past five years, and it announced early this month that 60 more U.S. stores are on the chopping block.

Even JCPenney, which reported its first quarterly profit since 2010, is downsizing. The company is bracing to slash 130 to 140 stores during the next few months.

It’s unclear how much of this new year, new me mentality will trickle down into the Sarasota-Bradenton market. We’re expecting formal closure lists from these companies in the coming weeks.

But while we speculate about whether the 2-year-old Abercrombie and Fitch at Westfield Southgate and the legacy JCPenney stores at Westfield Sarasota Square and DeSoto Square Mall are approaching their final days, it’s clear we’re already feeling the effects of the retail bubble in Southwest Florida.

The Macy’s at Sarasota Square is in the final stretch of its going-out-of-business sale, and it’s one of 100 in the country that’s closing. The Kmart just north of Fruitville Road on Beneva Road is going through the same process.

This liquidation has returned temporary life to the struggling retailers, and the stores have garnered some crowds comparable to the Christmas shopping season since sales began. It seems as though shoppers will pry themselves always from their devices and the convenience of e-commerce giant Amazon.com for a bargain.

But that’s no secret. It’s why you don’t see TJMaxx putting up going-out-of-business signs.

TJMaxx’s parent company didn’t close a single store last year, and this week company officials announced plans to eventually grow its discount-store empire, which includes Marshalls and Homegoods, by 50 percent. That would add 1,300 North American stores and 500 international locations to the company’s 3,800-store worldwide footprint.

It’s quite a goal for a shaky retail climate.

But something will have to take over the blank spaces that Staples, Kmart and Macy’s are leaving behind.

And if TJMaxx officials are willing to gamble that consumers will shop this way a decade from now — well, I would hate to burst their bubble.

Because we’re still dealing with the last one that popped in the industry.

The struggling high-end mall at U.S. 41 and Siesta Drive mall is preparing to welcome one of the most in-demand retailers in the country. We don’t have a formal launch date yet, but the organic, local-centric Lucky’s Market is slated to open in Southgate’s empty Dillard’s box this summer. The company has a reputation for putting stores in places that are on economic life support.

This could be the retail equivalent of a heart transplant, and Southgate has needed one since the Mall at University Town Center opened in October 2014. The shopping center is in the middle of a revitalization that’s turning it into a entertainment and lifestyle center, but it’s been hurting for retailers and foot traffic ever since the new mall came on the scene.

That ability to reuse and recreate space part of the Lucky’s Market methodology, Ben Friedland, the grocer’s vice president of marketing told me. It’s not something that the Boulder, Colorado-based company does exclusively. Lucky’s has a few made-from-scratch buildings among its 23 stores, but, when it can, Lucky’s tries to be a catalyst for economic growth.

I’ve seen that progress first hand. Lucky’s opened a store in Columbia, Missouri, in 2014 across the street from my college campus. The former Osco Drug building had been vacant during the entirety of my time at the University of Missouri. I stopped in briefly about two years ago to pick up flowers for an old colleague and couldn’t believe how that shopping center had changed. That space was empty for a decade and now Friedland says its one of Lucky’s best performing stores.

The company made a similar move when it launched its first Florida store in 2015. The company took over an old Pic ‘N Save in Gainesville that had been empty since 1996.

In retrospect, Dillard’s two year absence from the mall doesn’t seem quite so dramatic.

I actually ran into Rick Lewellyn, the master broker for Lucky’s Market, on Thursday at the International Council of Shopping Centers conference in Tampa. He spoke during a panel about how all he really needs to consider a site is an address. The chain is in such demand, he said, that mayors call him all the time asking him to put a Lucky’s in their community.

When I stopped him afterwards and mentioned the Sarasota store, he was quick to tell me that building does have some visibility issues. The old Dillard’s sits toward the back of the mall and away from the U.S. 41 frontage.

I checked with the Florida Department of Transportation and the annual average daily traffic there is 53,000, but Lucky’s actually faces Siesta Drive where that figure is only 8,500.

It’s hard to tell what that will mean for the grocer.

But Lucky’s does have a strong track record with troublesome buildings, and Friedland said the company also has a habit of making each store its best one yet.

He sat in on a tasting on Wednesday for Lucky’s new ramen bar feature that will debut in Sarasota this summer. Customers will be able to customize the traditional Japanese dish, and he expects it to be a highlight at the store.

Attractions, products and quality service are all key in the fiercely competitive grocery business.

Lucky’s certainly isn’t the only organic-focused market making moves in our region. Sprouts Farmers Market is slated to open in April across the street from Westfield Sarasota Square on the south end of town, and Earth Fare is moving forward with a store at a new development in Lakewood Ranch. Trader Joe’s and Fresh Market already are here. Whole Foods Market is building its second store.

Lucky’s already has a couple things that set it apart. The chain is known for its sip and stroll feature that allows customers to drink a beer or a glass of wine as they do their grocery shopping. The company is also generously aggressive about giving back to the community and selling fresh, organic foods at accessible price points.

It’ll be interesting to see what else besides ramen that Lucky’s dreams up for the Sarasota store.

That booming grocery competition just makes you work harder to earn customers’ trust and business, Friedland told me.

For the company, there’s way more to good business than just being lucky.

Southgate Village Shops will host its monthly sip and stroll on Thursday from 5-8 p.m.

Several businesses in the strip mall at the northeast corner of U.S. 41 and Siesta Drive across the street from Westfield Southgate are keeping their doors open later than usual. Merchants will offer an array of drinks, light bites, samples and promotions.

The shopping center is home to Pop Craft Pops, Bark & Bath pet groomer, Baker & Wife restaurant, Spider Lily Finery boutique, Z-Edge Tattoo and Body Piercing, Tropical Shores Popcorn, Goodbyes Consignment of Sarasota as well as several other retailers and service shops. Organizers expect about 15 storefronts to participate.

The merchants launched their first sip and stroll late last year and have brought it back as a monthly event in season because of success and demand. Three other sip and strolls are planned for March 9, April 13 and May 11.